Why do we find nature so calming and soothing? Waves on the shore? Water babbling over stones? The wind billowing the curtain? An inchworm progressing slowly up a blade of grass? Here we find that Nature is our best teacher for de-stressing. Variation within sameness calms and soothes us. This applies especially to children. What in your day can remain the same this week? Getting up at the same time? Dressing in the same sort of clothes? Eating similar food for breakfast? And where can you find novelty and variation? Going to the forest? Going to the beach? Going somewhere you didn’t think about until just this moment?
Notice the grain in a piece of wood, the song of a bird, the texture of the sand.
Calming, ephemeral nature: transience doesn’t bother it. Build a cairn. Then let it topple. Make a fairy ring of leaves. Then let them blow away. Build a sand castle that the tide will take away.
